This new home supports the notion that a Passive House doesn’t need to look a certain way. It turns out that a Passive House (certification pending in this case) can take on a what’s being referred to as a “mission revival style.” Called Menlo Passive, this “Old World,” luxury home was built by California-based Clarum Homes, a builder of high performance custom homes, and is currently listed for sale at the price of $2,695,000.

This is an ultra-efficient project that recently broke ground in Whistler, British Columbia. It’s interesting and innovative on many different levels. First, the Whistler Passive House Duplex has to meet affordability requirements as part of the Whistler Resident Housing Initiative. Second, the project team is pursuing Passive House for both homes. Third, the project will be built with a unique panelized prefabricated wall system.

DesignByMany recently held a contest seeking a low-cost, low-energy home for New Orleans. The brief requested designs in a shotgun typology and entrants were encouraged to strive to meet Passive House standards. The winners have now been announced and sustainable.TO took top honors, according to Arch Daily. Check out the top five homes, and click through for more detail on each home.

Synergy is a design for an affordable, cold-climate Passive House by Tim Eian of TE Studio, the firm behind the first Passive House in Wisconsin. Eian says Synergy is “a beacon for the 21st century renaissance of residential high-performance design.” In other words, this is a home for everyone: it’s traditional, comfortable, light-filled, and attainable.

This home is officially the first Passive House in North Carolina. It’s also the first Passive House in the country built out of concrete, according to Chris Senior, certified Passive House consultant and owner of Anchorage Building Corp., the builder. Senior said his company was able to keep construction costs “surprisingly reasonable” by fashioning the entire exterior from concrete.

This is R-House, a recently built prototype home in Syracuse that is pursuing both Passive House and LEED certification. It was recently honored with a 2011 AIA Housing Award, and one of the jurors said the 1,100 square-foot home presents “A new slant on sustainability!” R-House was designed in partnership by Della Valle Bernheimer and Architecture Research Office and is an interesting case study for the next generation of smaller, greener, ultra-low energy homes.